Valve has announced that Steam, their online digital distribution platform, will start adding Free to Play games to their online store. These free to play titles offer no initial cost, but usually subsidize themselves by offering premium in game items for a small fee.
Sometimes you don't realize how devastatingly poignant something is until a day later. I snapped this photo of the Dark Souls booth, happy that there was no line covering the display . Sure, it looks cool, but what's more intriguing is that there's no line at all. Those ropes mark the entrance to Dark Souls, and they could hold no more than a dozen people. This picture was not taken at E3 after hours or before the doors opened. In fact, there were hundreds of people in line for some of the bigger games when I took it.
Normally the Battlefield Report is reserved for games that aren't inherently co-op, but this story beat the rest to the top of the list. A non-traditional
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City captured my attention the moment it was announced. A four player squad shooter set during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3? We get to play as the evil Umbrella Security Service? That works for me. I've been wanting to take out Leon S. Kennedy and his stupid haircut since 1998.
As E3 was winding down I finally got to get my hands on one of my most anticipated games of 2011, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. I spied the playable co-op while Andrew was playing some Twisted Metal and immediately told our PR rep we had to play it. Soon Andrew and I sat down with another developer to play through the game's new three player co-op adventure mode.
We've gone hands-on a couple different times with Snowblind's upcoming War in the North. Opinions are mixed and excitement levels are varied amongst the Co-optimus staff and community, but one thing's quite clear: this is a game that a huge amount of people have their eyes on. We showed you guys a trailer at the beginning of the month devoted to Beleram, a recently announced NPC (non-player character) who will be eating some orc faces by your side in the game. Today, a new trailer was released that revealed more NPCs who you'll meet and fight along side of in the game. The wizard Radagast the Brown and Elrond's sons Elladan and Elrohir will be joining the fight in the north as well as Elrond and Gandalf, of course.
The Adventures of Shuggy was just released on Xbox Live Arcade and the indie-ish looking title, developed by Smudge Cat Games, looks like a charming puzzle platformer. Shuggy is a little vampire who has just been given the deed to his Grandmother's mansion only to find it's filled with bad guys and traps.
During Sony's E3 2011 press conference they unveiled a new family friendly PS Move title called Medieval Moves: Deadmund's Quest. Kat immediately turned to me and said how much fun it looked like. Being developed by the same team that created Sports Champions and utilizing many of the same mechanics, that should come as no surprise. The gladiator and archery games in Sports Champions were some of our favorite and Deadmund's Quest combines those mechanics with disc golf, or in the game's case, throwing stars.
Either this image is blurry or you have had too much to drink
It’s time to head back to the age of Sega Saturn with this stylish HD remake of a game called Guardian Heroes. Play as one of four adventurers through an RPG brawler for the ages, as it’s re-envisioned by the same company that originally released it in 1996. I did just that at E3 2011, as a new blood to the game without any tainted nostalgia contact lenses.
Finding a new arcade game with dual-stick shooter controls, various classes, and four player online/two player split screen local co-op is always a huge treat for this gamer. In the case of Renegade Ops at E3 from Sega, this happened. I sat in a tiny room with four T.V.s set up to play this military vehicle dual-stick shooter game, complete with four very unique vehicles and a bit of competitive c-op.
On the third day of E3, Nick and I had a joint appointment at the Sony booth/building. He got some hands-on time with Resistance 3 and we both played a co-op round of Uncharted 3 (preview forthcoming). But what really piqued my interest was the Twisted Metal re-boot. The first Twisted Metal came out when I was in high school, and I was curious to see how the re-boot would handle the series.
